A Single Second
by Seph Meadowes
Summary: It takes a single moment to knock the universe off its balance. Christian/Mia.
1. un

_When he kisses you he isn't doing anything else. You're his whole universe and the __moment__ is eternal because he doesn't have any plans and isn't going anywhere. Just kissing you...it's overwhelming._ -** Anonymous**

It happens quickly.

She's messing around and making the funniest shapes with the water, an octopus like creature with long tentacles that just _has_ to reach up and smack him in the face.

He gets annoyed and throws a fireball at the water monster, enveloping the Rinaldi's backyard with steam and temporarily clouding his vision. When the mist clears, he only sees the way her cheeks flush and the twinkling in her blue eyes.

She throws a water ball at him and shrieks when he starts chasing her. The air is cold against his wet face but he doesn't care and she keeps on laughing, her blonde ponytail whipping in the air like a halo.

His arms catch her in the middle and it's a blur of giggles and shrieks as they collapse to the grass. He's probably crushing her with his body weight but she doesn't seem to mind because she's too busy laughing and her laugh is too infectious for him to not join along.

Their breathless and all smiles until his body starts to react to the small and soft body underneath him, bright baby doll eyes that just kill him look into his own and his hand reaches up to move her hair from her face.

And for the moment, it's like time stopped. One of those cliché moments the girls keep going on about and all he can focus on is her pink plump little mouth.

It's like electric shock when his lips touch hers and wow, the heat of his body clashes with the cold of hers and all is left is this fuzzy feeling in his stomach that are like caterpillars turning into butterflies.

And it should sound gross but it doesn't because when her arms move around his neck to pull him closer, all the thoughts leave his mind as the kiss deepens and he wonders to himself what stopped him from doing this before.

His mind is fuzzy and it's all about lips and tongue and funny little feelings before she's suddenly pushing him off and staring at him in disbelief.

Her baby doll eyes are wide from shock and his lost in the depths of cornflower blue before she speaks and ruins it all. "Lissa's probably looking for you right now."

And it's like a bucket of ice water and he's standing up feeling like he's in a daze. "Right, I should…I should go."

She agrees with him, crossing her arms over her chest like she's about to break apart and the action is helping keep her together. "Let's just forget about…_that_, okay?"

His mind is still this flashes of hot and cold and he really doesn't understand anything more. "Of course," He gets the words out but they don't really mean anything, do they? Just words, not a promise.

Because the thing is, he contemplates as he walks away, he doesn't think he can forget.

* * *

**Just testing out a ship that may have potential.**


	2. deux

He's angry and shouting and so much like he's element she's just a bit scared. She readies herself for a gust of fire or anything to come but nothing does. He just collapses in a chair, his head in his hands as he breathes deeply. In and out like it should be and he wants so very desperately to cry.

The only parent he has is in jail and he doesn't know what to feel, what to believe in anymore. There's no way to undo what his aunt had done and there's no way he can recover from this without losing who he is.

Everything he grew up with, all the ideals, feel like lies and he wants to break something and put things on fire.

He came to her because she understood anger, confusion and the bitter taste of regrets.

He'd never come to Lissa, not when she's just been made queen and she's busy with all her new responsibilities. Rose is too goddamn selfish and he wouldn't dream of confessing all of this to Dimitri.

But Mia – he goes to her. Maybe because they're alike in ways he'd never care to admit. They're broken in a lot of ways, darker, angrier. But unlike him, she faces it all with coolness and unending patience. She's the epitome of her element and he is his after all.

She stands up from where she was seated on her bed and comes over to where he is. Her hands are gentle, soothing as she takes his face in her hands, he stares into pools of ice blue before her lips touch his. She tastes sweet like honey and he immediately deepens and the kiss and she gasped at the heat that follows.

They're fire and ice. His rough, passionate, almost animalistic in his need to satisfy, to forget and she's calm and yielding, her hands continuous with gentle touches as they ignite and break and put each other back together again.

They lay in tangled sheets, her kisses like the touches of butterflies as she kissed his chest and he moaned and stared at the halo of her blonde, blonde hair.

It ended quietly like it began.

"Thank you," He whispers as they're lulled in the afterglow, his arms around her, her head on his chest. She smells sweet like some kind of flower and he feels intoxicated and lazy and sated.

"You're welcome," She murmured back, already half sleep. She makes little mewling noises in her sleep and she treats him like a teddy bear and it all feels kind of odd how comfortable he feels.

He hasn't thought of Lissa during the whole thing and he doesn't know if that's a good or bad thing.

All he knows is the content feeling deep in his bones as he falls in a bed of a woman he doesn't love.


	3. trois

He doesn't know why he keeps coming back.

He blames it all on the sudden pressure that's been put on him because there's something about dating a queen that puts everyone's attention on you. Because really, he'd never been one for all these social niceties and so he reasons, he goes for an escape.

Nobody would look for him at the Rinaldi's home after all and Mia spends most afternoons nowadays at home, watching bad reality television and even though he cannot stand any of them, he bares them for the sake of boredom.

Things are oddly not awkward at all between them. She doesn't mention what happened and neither does he. It's like they made a silent promise to each other to forget about the entire thing.

That's not true at all thought because he finds himself unable to forget what happened, most nights he lies awake replaying in his head every touch and every sound and he feels his throat well up with guilt as he lays in bed with Lissa who's oblivious to just how everything's changed.

Everything feels different for him, like one thing's been removed or added and now he can't feel the same way about anything more. Mia seems so normal and uncaring about it all and it frustrates him to no end. While he's very close to having a breakdown, she's licking a Popsicle and watching _Jershey Shore_ so scot free and dandy it makes his head hurt.

Maybe it's just how she worked (very few things did faze Mia Rinaldi) but he expects at least some kind of reaction from her, an acknowledgement she's going crazy just as much as he is.

No man can concentrate properly when a pretty girl sucks on a Popsicle like she does, all reverent of the sweet like it's sent from the heavens itself. Her pink tongue coming out to wet her bee-stung lips so many times, it takes all his self control not to pounce on her on the couch and have his way with her.

It's an excruciating hour as she finishes the sweet and is completely oblivious to the kind of torture she's inflicting on him. She finally only sees his intense expression when she finishes and asks with a curious, "What?"

He blissfully, finally pounces on her, he pushes her down on the couch and kisses her with a passion that makes her gasp and moan and all those needy little noises he's been dreaming about. She tastes sweet like the ice cream and that honey flavor of hers and she's very sweet, too sweet and he can't get enough.

He feels addicted and heady and dying in the pleasure of extremes. She's all softness, sweetness and willing to follow his lead. She takes off his shirt and then her dress and she's porcelain and all-girl.

She's perfect, addictive and incredible and he never wants to stop.

"W-What are you doing?" She asks as he licks her neck, smelling that flowery scent.

"I...I don't know," He merely replies before kissing her again and it continues.

He spends the rest of the afternoon drunk in flowers, ice cream and honey.


	4. quatre

It starts to become a habit. He spends some days and nights just watching TV on her couch or exploring soft pale skin like he's painting a canvas. She doesn't complain, whine or ask for anything.

She just seems to accept his unannounced visits like a fact of life and moved on. He finds it just a bit perturbing.

It was just her, he guessed. Mia Rinaldi bounced back from life faster than anyone he knew and she wore her scars like a badge, daring anyone to question her and get kneed in the groin in return.

He blames it on boredom and pressure. Why he keeps coming back.

That and her tastes and smells are just as addictive as anything and he's just a man, prone to base weaknesses.

Like when her head is lying on his chest, her fingers skimming the smooth skin of his stomach as she hums to herself. Her voice sounds pleasant as her hand makes indiscernible patterns on his skin. She smells like sunshine and daffodils and it makes him feel intoxicated like he drank a whole bottle of wine.

And a part of him that part of him that used to worship the ground Lissa walked on, berates him about his behavior, about what he is doing. But the larger part of him that has lost that sad delusion of perfect Princess Lissa could care less.

Because the whole of him is now expected to be the perfect partner for Queen Lissa and he can't take that. Christian Ozera had never followed the crowd and he doesn't want to now.

So that's why he does it. That pathetic, reckless side of him rebels against his new life and he does so by Mia Rinaldi who's willing to let him exhaust himself within her softness and sweetness until he's so sick of it, he can barely stand it.

He also feels that she's the only one he can talk to now. Lissa's busy, Rose couldn't really care and Dimitri was inconceivable. But Mia listens until he's throat hurts from talking and she's half asleep.

She still listens and that meant a lot.

He tells her how angry he is with his aunt, how confused he is with what to do, how he can barely stand the sight of Lissa anymore and how he feels so alone sometimes it hurts more than he'd admit.

She listens, her hands always there to comfort him, her lips always there for a needed kiss.

She listens.

And he drowns himself in her taste until he can barely breathe.

He distracts himself with her until he barely understands anything anymore.

Until she's had enough and slaps himself so hard, his cheek stings red.

She's angry, so angry at him.

"Have you had enough?" She asks, all ice.

No, he'll never have enough. He needs her, he wants more.

"No." He says and he pulls her to him, her struggling until he kisses her so hard, it hurts.

She makes little gasps against his mouth as she finally breaks down and cries and he holds on to her until the sobs end and she kisses him back.

The kisses are slower, softer, and have more emotion to them than any other kiss he's ever shared with anyone. She's yielding and sweetness and softness and he makes love to her with pure honesty this time until she starts to cry and he kisses her tears away.

They lay together in a tangle of dirty sheets, her arms around him as she hummed him to sleep.


	5. cinq

Things continue with the both of them. She accepted his advances and let him stay some nights.

He kept coming back, his addictions getting worse by the day. He was addicted to her tastes and smells and her touch and he didn't want to get away from her anymore than she did him.

Everything was easy with Mia. She didn't ask any questions, didn't want to talk about her feelings. All she wanted was him and his kisses and his touch and that was all that mattered.

Except for one night.

"Do you regret what happened to your aunt?" She asked one night as they lay in bed, her head on the crook of his collarbone. He shifted uncomfortably under her scrutiny and shrugged as much as he could with the weight of her head on him.

"That's not a proper answer." She persisted. She got up to look at him and her piercing icy glare was enough to make him uncomfortable and just a little bit pissed.

"No. What my aunt did was wrong and she's paying for her actions now."

"You don't really believe that do you?" She was incredulous. "She is your aunt. She raised you."

"Why are you persisting on this?"

"Because Christian, a week ago, you were crying your eyes out over this. Over what happened to your aunt and nowadays, you act like you could care less. It makes no sense."

"Shut up." He was harsh this time, unmovable. He didn't want to hear anymore.

"No." She refused to relent. She was ice, cold and hard. "We need to talk about this."

"No, we don't." He was fire, hot and destructive. "And even if I were, I wouldn't discuss this with _you_."

"Why not? You seem to be okay telling me all about it a week ago."

"Things change." He said. "And my…affections towards you tend to cloud my judgment."

"Things haven't changed." She said back. "You're angry. Admit it. You're angry and sad about what happened and you're rebelling by sleeping with me. For God's sakes, Christian, have the balls to admit the truth!"

"Fine! If you want to hear the truth, fine! I'm only sleeping with you because I'm upset about what happened. Is that what you want to hear?"

"No," She was quiet now, yielding. "But at least you're being honest with yourself." She sighed, clutching the sheets closer to her body as if she'd break at any moment. "I knew all along this wasn't meant to last anyway."

He got up, eyes concerned. "What do you mean?"

"You and I, Christian," Her eyes are blue sorrow. "We're not meant to be."

He tried to grasp that, tried to make the words make sense. But they wouldn't. They just wouldn't.

"We could be."

"You have Lissa." She insisted. "Have you forgotten her as well, Christian? Like you tried to forget your aunt?"

He felt his stomach sink to his feet. He felt hollow inside.

"What do you want me to do?"

She got up from the bed, taking the sheets with her. "Talk to your aunt, kiss your girlfriend – _I don't know_. Just from now on, leave me out of it."


End file.
